Coronavirus pandemic: West Indies offer England to host Test series in Caribbean

In the wake of coronavirus outbreak, England's three-match home Test series against West Indies could be postponed till September or shifted to the Caribbean Islands. 

The two sides are slated to lock horns in the longest format of the game from June 4 at the Kia Oval. However, the possible delay in the start of the English domestic season due to an anticipated peak in coronavirus cases in June make it highly unlikely for the series to proceed as per schedule. 

England Cricket and Wales Board (ECB) and its West Indies counterpart are holding  several discussion these days regarding the possibility of resheduling the three Tests and staging it in West Indies, ESPNcricinfo reported.

Besides this, Cricket West Indies (CWI) has reportedly also offered England to host their three-match Test series against Pakistan--scheduled to take place from June 30--in the Caribbeans.

Confirming the news, CWI CEO Jonny Grave said that it's the time for the cricket community to work together at a difficult time and, therefore, they are ready to provide England cricket with all the necessary support.

"I've spoken to Tom Harrison a couple of times in the last few days and assured him that we will be as flexible, supportive and helpful as possible.To that end, yes, we have offered to host the series here in the Caribbean if that is deemed helpful. The ECB would retain all commercial and broadcast rights," Grave said.

"This is not about us trying to take advantage of the situation. It's about the cricket community working together at a difficult time for everyone and, one of the many great things about the Caribbean is, we can play cricket all year round. There has long been a special relationship between the cricket communities in the Caribbean and England and we wanted to make it clear we will do everything we can to help," he added.

England has reported almost 2,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus so far, while West Indies have just two reported cases in each of Barbados and St Lucia and one in Antigua.

The virus outbreak, which was first reported in December 2019 from Wuhan city of China, has so far claimed the lives of more than 8,000 people and affected more than 2,00,000 persons globally.